Iraqi leaders, under intense US pressure, have reached tentative agreements on oil wealth distribution, perhaps the most divisive issue among for the country's ethnic and religious groups. Panelists finalising Iraq's constitution said on Saturday a deal had been struck to share the world's second largest known oil reserves, which are concentrated in the Kurdish controlled north and largely Shia south. "An in principle agreement has been reached late yesterday that Iraq's oil revenues will be shared between the Shia, the Kurds and the Sunnis," Sunni panelist Saleh al-Mutlaq said.Many Sunnis fear that if Iraq adopts a federal structure, the country's oil wealth will be divided up between the Kurdish and Shia regions, leaving them with nothing. But Mutlaq explained that while a percentage of oil revenue would go to the federal government, the rest would be distributed centrally to each governorate according to its population size. "All the groups have agreed on this," said Mutlaq, one of the representatives on the 71-member constitution committee struggling to draw up a draft charter before Monday's deadline. Some reports indicated the federal government of each oil producing region would take a revenue share of about 5%, with the rest going to Baghdad for nationwide distribution.
A Kurdish member of the panel expressed caution over interpreting the apparent consensus as an end to problems over the division of Iraq's oil wealth. "The Sunnis have still not agreed to any of the main points ... but even if there is no agreement from them, the draft can still be passed in the National Assembly," Kurdish National Assembly member Mahmud Othman said.